Time to talk about our organisations!

When becoming an European Solidarity Corps   volunteer (previously known as European Voluntary Service volunteer), there is so much more than just you in the middle of your dream. And it’s a good, no - even a wonderful thing, that there are people supporting you on that journey!

When it comes to the importance and role of organisations in one European Solidarity Corps voluntary projects, then we must say that there are some things which apply for each volunteer and project and at the very same time, with people being different, the organisations are different and so don’t also the projects look anything similar.

In each European Solidarity Corps (later on ESC) project there is, like we know, the volunteer, who spends two to 12 months abroad, doing something which interests him or her and learns through the most amazing ways it’s possible and gives something from himself/herself to the local community at the same time as well. But next to this volunteer, there are always people and organisations supporting him or her on this journey and that makes it such a one of a kind and safe way to live abroad, discover and get to know about world and about yourself!

The organisations, which are always there and very needed in the voluntary projects are:

• Supporting organisation (also known as sending organisation) - in volunteer’s home country (in our case Estonia and Finland)
• Hosting organisation - in the country where the volunteer makes his or her voluntary time come true (in our case Spain)
• Last but not least at all: one of these organisations or sometimes a third one next to them is the coordinating organisation who takes care of the finances, applying for the project etc (in our case it’s our hosting organisation here in Spain)

Briefly - what is the role of each one of them?

Supporting organisation like the name says, is there for the volunteer as a support and the organisation which prepares the volunteer for the adventure and supports from the home country. Like we said, each project is different, but from our examples we point out why did we chose these organisations, how are we in connection with our supporting organisation and what have they done for us.

Angela’s supporting organisation is NGO (non-governmental organisation) Continuous Action (founded in 2005), based in Tallinn, Estonia and they are absolutely amazing! With a little team they manage to host and send volunteers (also oh so exciting group projects!), help youth to organise Erasmus+ youth exchanges, are partner in many international projects and are important part of the international youth field in Estonia.

Why Angela chose them? She believes that when starting so important thing in your life as becoming an ESC volunteer, it’s important to know and trust the people who are there supporting you from the organisations. Seeing many years the good work this organisation have done was the reason she contacted them the moment she decided to apply for this project over here in Majadahonda.

Youth work field in Estonia is not that huge and with one of the members of Continuous Action, Annli, had Angela worked together for some projects as well. So it felt natural to call Annli one afternoon and to say that so, the story is that now it’s time to go and make this dream happen and can Continuous Action be there for her. One thing to point out here which Angela really appreciates is that Annli took the idea seriously from the first moment even though they had not work before with our hosting organisation, she made sure that Angela knows about the organisation, have done her “homework” and is really ready to go and become a volunteer. And the rest is already history!

Fiia’s supporting organisation story

Fiia’s story is quite different than Angela’s. Many years ago (probably through youth work studies) she heard about an organisation called Allianssi Youth Exchanges. This organisation works with a wide variety of international mobility programs and for example organises all the European Solidarity Corps projects in Finland. When the right time finally came to apply to be a volunteer, Fiia remembered this organisation and started looking for projects. She looked at the projects from European Youth Portal. This portal offers European and national information and opportunities that are of interest to young people who are living, learning and working in Europe. It provides information around eight main themes, covers 35 countries and is available in 28 languages.

Fiia found a perfect project and applied and at the same time she contacted to Allianssi that she has been applied to this project. When she got selected and time went by she got training to be a volunteer from supporting organisation (Allianssi) and all the help she ever needed. And now being in project she feels safe and clear that she can contact them anytime if there are some troubles or questions. So the whole process with supporting organisation was very simple and easy. Make them know that you are applying, share news and information about applying process, get training and keep them informed during your voluntary project. 

Steps which you (as a volunteer) usually take with your supporting organisation are these:

• Go through the project, get clear your motivation and willing to go 
• Have meeting(s) to go through the agreement, prepare the volunteer for upcoming adventure: talk about the country, organisation, every day things like local phonecard, bank account etc, explain the health insurance Cigna to the volunteer, explain the importance and role of a Youthpass, go through things what the volunteer maybe is afraid of or the doubts he or she might have.
• They are there for you to get everything clear with the hosting/coordinating organisation. For example in Angela’s agreement there was one little mistake with the amount of days she’s working during the project and Annli from supporting organisation was there to point it out and get it fixed.
• Keeping supporting organisation updated from time to time how is it going, sending some photos/videos, maybe a little article. With social media nowadays these things are of course easier and easier. But from both of our examples we can say that we really feel that the supporting organisations are there for us and we can write or call to them with both - the joys and worries.

Our hosting and coordinating organisation is Ayuntamiento de Majadahonda Concejalia de Juventud, Centro Juvenil “Principe de Asturias”. It’s a youth center in a town called Majadahonda, next to Madrid. As you hopefully know from our blog, podcast episodes or Instagram - blondieslostinspain.

In our case the hosting organisation is also coordinating organisation which means that they are taking care of the finances, project applying and finale reporting process, managing with the health insurance Cigna, taking care of the training cycle which all volunteers have (on arrival training about which we have video in our blog and mid-term training we will have soon, travels from home country to Spain and back, accomodation, being in contact with the National Agency of Spain who finances the project, helping with the language lessons (to get volunteers to learn local language), being in charge of the Youthpass process. Youthpass is the certificate and a tool used in Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps projects.

Like mentioned, we have organisations and people from these organisations supporting us from back home and our amazing support system over here in Spain, the youth center mentioned before and our tutor Cristina. About her and her thoughts about this kind of projects you will hear in the future when she’s going to share about hosting volunteers here in Majadahonda for already ten years!

We hope that this long talk about our dear organisations helped you to understand one ESC project a bit more. Remember - all our posts go hand in hand: in the podcasts we share one part, by writing another and everyday things you can find in our Instagram!

If you are also interested in becoming a volunteer or you think that your organisation would be a perfect place for one international volunteer, check out THIS website and know more!

Abrazos,

Fiia y Angela